Lanco Are Learning That Freedom Is a Two-Way Street

Lanco are starting to think about their next studio album, and they know they want to maintain the freedom that came with creating a debut album that carried few expectations.

Working with producer Jay Joyce, the group says they chased their impulses.

The result is a disparate collection of songs on Hallelujah Nights. Two love songs are the signatures, which singer Brandon Lancaster and company marvel at. Fans exercised their freedom to apply the lyrics of "Born to Love You" and "Greatest Love Story" to their own situations.

“I never thought that was a wedding song. Never," Lancaster says of "Greatest Love Story," the CMA nominated group's first No. 1 song. "It’s a pretty specific story, and it may be because I did write like 12 verses of that song so I know a little more about that story.”

If you're new to the group, "Greatest Love Story" tells the story of Lancaster and wife Tiffany's rollercoaster romance. "Born to Love You" is more universal — even more universal than the Nashville-born band realized. Sitting backstage in the Zen Den at the Seven Peaks Festival in Buena Vista, Colo., over Labor Day weekend, Lanco confess that people have started telling them how the lyrics translate to new parents. That's something the five-some (all without kids) never saw coming.

"As songwriters, you really want to write something that will make people feel," bassist Chandler Baldwin says. "A lot of what makes people feel is being able to relate to it. So whatever way they relate to it, I think, is great."

This summer, Lanco are touring with Seven Peaks headmaster Dierks Bentley, who early on let them and Brothers Osborne know the key to keeping it together would be to create a family away from family. That's the atmosphere he preaches; it's all about community, and it extends to his fans — many of whom he knows by name and references on stage. Lanco say they looks at artists like Bentley (but also Bruce Springsteen, Eric Church and Tom Petty) when shaping the way they go about their business.

"They created almost like a cult following," Lancaster says. "They were so free to do their own thing because they seemed so transparent and so in charge of their own thing and in charge of their own music."

"When you can find your fans that really know you through your music," he continues, "and they’re gonna keep following you on that journey, that’s a big thing. You just want that freedom as an artist to create what you want to create and have fans that get that."

Turnout for Lanco's set at Seven Peaks proved they're well on their way. While the group (including drummer Tripp Howell, guitarist Eric Steedly and keyboardist Jared Hampton) has released just three singles, there was genuine enthusiasm for album cuts and genuine interest in new music, which the group is working on. Without offering specifics, they say producer Jay Joyce has been pulling them back into the studio to create an album that will ultimate be more focused than Hallelujah Nights. If you're looking for a song that leads to the style they're playing with, try "Born to Love You" or maybe "So Long (I Do)."